Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Ratatouille

I remember thinking a few months back that the trailer wasn't all that funny.

That Disney-Pixar felt the need to tell audiences how to pronounce the title ('rat-a-too-ee') is indicative of one of the difficulties it may face, especially with younger audiences: the cultural references with which its tale of stuffiness overcome by the most unlikely form of inclusiveness is wrapped, are more likely to tickle the tastebuds of parents. Foodiness is after all one of adulthood's sensual pleasures.

Whilst not quite up to the standards of incredibleness in terms of script and digital animation set by The Incredibles, it was very funny, but in that inward-smiling grown-up way. Perhaps the best laugh it got from us came with a visual gag that could not really have been realised to such great effect in a movie with live actors − the moment when restaurant critic Anton Ego tastes Remy's signature dish and is instantly transported back to a meal prepared by his mother in his rural childhood home.